"Actor: Birger Malmsten"

• The Silence | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £8.39   |  Saving you £14.59 (270.18%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The third in Ingmar Bergman's trilogy of "chamber works" featuring characters in isolated, existentially dramatic settings, The Silence, made in 1963, is set in Timoka, a fictional Eastern European town with its own made-up language. Stylistically more sensual and maximal than its austere predecessors Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light, it was both a success and a scandal in its day, featuring as it does scenes of masturbation, sex and even lesbian eroticism. Jorgen Lindstrom plays Jonas, a small boy travelling with his mother Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) and aunt Ester (Ingrid Thulin). His aunt is dying of consumption, but his mother is a great deal more alive and smouldering with sexual energy. As the tension between the bedridden aunt and the frustrated mother mounts, Jonas roams the hotel corridors and chances almost surreally upon the hotels only other occupants--an elderly floor waiter and a troupe of performing dwarves. Meanwhile, his mother is picked up by a waiter in a cafe, is seduced by him in a church then engages in a traumatically miserable bout of hotel sex. Sultry, full of incident and dreamlike cinematic spectacle (the performing dwarves, a rumbling tank, an overheated railway carriage) there's a sense of aimlessness and oblivion about The Silence, in which the godlessness of the universe, though never discussed, is implied throughout the movie. There is, however, a note of humanist hope struck in the conclusion, more convincing than the platitudinous finale of Through a Glass Darkly. On the DVD: Bergman's notes explain how he had long nurtured the notion of setting a movie in an imaginary city where "the rules of society cease to exist", and how the young boy's curious wanderings were inspired by his first exposure to Stockholm as a child. Critic Philip Strick's notes reveal that Greta Garbo had at one point been mooted to make a return to the screen in this film and that in certain countries, censors insisted on separate screenings of The Silence for males and females. --David Stubbs

• Prison | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £9.00   |  Saving you £10.99 (122.11%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A maths teacher approaches a former pupil now a film director with an idea for a film: the Devil declares that the Earth is hell. Upon considering the idea for his next project the director shares his memories with a journalist while filming an ill-fated passage from his past... Based in and around a movie studio this experimental and intriguing film is essentially a film within a film and is notable for being the first Bergman film in which Death a key leitmotif makes an appea

• Ingmar Bergman Volume 1 (5 - Disc Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (26/07/2021) from £36.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  For over 50 years, Ingmar Bergman produced ground-breaking works of cinema that established him as one of the world's most acclaimed, enduring and influential filmmakers. Ingmar Bergman: Volume One marks the first of a four volume celebration of the auteur's work - available on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK - and reflects on the opening stages of Bergman's career. Presented over five discs, the set features 2K restorations of eight early films written or directed by Bergman. Including initial partnerships with regular collaborators (such as cinematographer Gunnar Fischer and actor Birger Malmsten), these early works exhibit his burgeoning talents, introducing themes and tones that he would continue to develop over the next five decades. The films: Torment (Dir. Alf Sjöberg | Scr. Ingmar Bergman, 1944), Crisis (1946), Eva (Dir. Gustaf Molander | Scr. Ingmar Bergman, 1948), Music in Darkness (1948), Port of Call (1948), Prison (1949), Three Strange Loves (1949), To Joy (1950) 5-Blu-ray set featuring 2K restorations of all 8 films Perfect-bound book featuring new essays by Jan Holmberg (CEO of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation), Philip Kemp, Geoff Andrew, Jessica Kiang, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Kat Ellinger, and Laura Hubner Ingmar Bergman: The Early Years (2021): a new video essay by writer, filmmaker and film journalist Leigh Singer Ingmar Bergman Guardian Interview (1982, 62 mins, audio only): Bergman pays tribute to Alf Sjöberg, the director of Torment, discussing his influence and impact on his own career Other extras TBC Limited edition (5,000 units) Newly commissioned artwork by Andrew Bannister

• Summer Interlude | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £10.35   |  Saving you £9.64 (93.14%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Talented young ballerina Marie (Nilsson) falls in love with wealthy young college student Henrik Malmsten). After spending the summer together Henrik suffers a tragic accident and as a result his death continues to shape Marie's actions throughout her life...

• Bergman - the Faith Trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly / Winter Light / The Silence) | DVD | (28/01/2008) from £15.45   |  Saving you £14.54 (94.11%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Between 1961 and 1963, Ingmar Bergman embarked on three films thematically concerned with man's relationship to God and the futility of spiritual belief. Together, The Faith Trilogy proved a turning point for the director, securing his collaboration with cinematographer Sven Nykvist and exhibiting his mastery for direction. Through a Glass Darkly (1961): A schizophrenic girl has visions, believing that God's presence is ever closer. However as her descent into madness deepens, ...

• Waiting Women | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £9.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (100.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  'Waiting Women' is an episodic work composed of three segments thr third of which represents Bergman's first foray into comedy later honed in the erotic farce 'A Lesson In Love'. Three women (all sisters-in-law) talk about their marital problems while waiting for their husbands at a summer cottage. The first story concerns Rakel (Anita Bjrk) and an adulterous episode that changed her marriage forever. In the next intensely visual segment featuring only limited dialogue Marta (M

• To Joy | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £10.35   |  Saving you £9.64 (93.14%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of Ingmar Bergman's key early works - directed when he was just 30 years old - To Joy explores some of the themes that would come to chracterise many of his later films: the incompatibility of spouses and the responsibility of artists. Marta and Stig both play in an orchestra conducted by Sonderby. Their relationship is a happy one and they soon decide to get married and have children. However things begin to turn sour when Stig begins a sordid affair that threatens to dest

• Eva | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £8.98   |  Saving you £11.01 (122.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Years after a childhood accident leads to the death of his friend a 10 year old blind girl Bo moves to a remote island with his beautiful wife Eva. Troubled by nightmares that figure him as the killer close to him he is in a constant state of anxiety. Then one stormy night he is forced to confront his greatest fears and assume the responsisbility for the lives of those he loves as he rows his pregnant wife to the mainland. Released in 1948 this gripping film was the second Berg

• Three Strange Loves | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ingmar Bergman's dramatisation of four Birgit Tengroth short stories novel which interweaves several episodes from the lives of Rut (Henning) and her husband Bertil (Malmsten)... Intricate and intense this powerful psychological drama is based on works by Birgit Tengroth (who also plays Viola in the film) and stands as a true Ingmar Bergman classic. Upon its original release in 1949 the lesbian relationship featured in the film was removed by censors: Bergman's original vision is

• Masculin, Feminin | DVD | (14/03/2005) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  'Masculin Feminin' stars Truffaut favourite Jean-Pierre Leaud Chantal Goya and Brigitte Bardot; set against a background of an edgy France gripped by political upheaval the Vietnam war and an election in which Charles De Gaulle kept his grip on power much to the frustration of the disgruntled Left. Structuring the film around 15 scenes of varying lengths Godard takes the deceptively simple story of the relationship between an ex-army recruit Paul (Leaud) and aspiring pop singe